U.S. public opinion polls

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Support and opposition among American adults
towards same-sex marriage (SSM) and civil unions.

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Current status of same-sex marriages (SSM) and civil unions:

As of 2014-MAY, same-sex marriages are available in 18 jurisdictions (17 states and the District of Columbia) in the U.S. including the two most populous states, California and New York. In excess of 60 lawsuits are active in federal courts in various states to legalize SSM. Any of these -- or any combination of these -- lawsuits may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as 2015.

Some jurisdictions limit SSM to residents. Other places, like Canada, allow both residents and
visitors to marry.

In addition, a few U.S. states and other countries allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, domestic partnerships,
or similar arrangements. In the U.S., these couples receive some or all of the rights, privileges,
and obligations that the state gives to married couples. However, they do not receive what is for many the most important right of all -- the right to call their relationship a marriage.

Whatever recognition, protections, benefits, given by states to same-sex couples and their children, all were denied 1,138 federal benefits and protections that are automatically given to married opposite-sex couples. This was due to Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This part of DOMA was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in late 2013-JUN.

This section lists the results of many public opinion surveys that evaluated the support of, and
opposition to, SSM by a random sampling of American adults or registered voters. They are grouped by polling agency.
Unfortunately, results are vary significantly on the precise question asked,
the wording of questions asked before the SSM query, the time of day that the subject was
phoned, the type of phone (cell and/or landline), etc. Thus the findings are not all strictly comparable. However, long-term trends in the direction of increased support, and reduced opposition, to SSM are obvious.

Of particular interest are:

2009-APR: A national Washington Post/ABC poll was the first to suggest that more American adults may support same-sex marriage (49%) than opposed it (46%). However, the margin of of 3 percentage points was very small, and within the sampling error.

2010-AUG: The national Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll was the first major poll to show that most American adults support SSM. Asked whether "gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to marry..." the results were 52% in favor, 46% opposed; 2% unsure or no response, for a margin of 6 percentage points.

2011-MAR-10-13: A Washington Post/ABC News national poll reported that 53% of American adults supported same-sex marriage; 44% were opposed. This is a margin of 9 percentage points in favor of SSM! This result was confirmed by other polls shortly after this one.

2011-APR-03:A remarkable survey in New York state -- one of the more liberal states in the U.S. -- showed that 58% of registered voters supported SSM while only 36% were opposed -- a margin of 22 percentage points! Support among Democrats was 65%, Whites: 62%; young voters: 74%; Roman Catholics 59%; and non Judeo-Christians: 78%. Protestants and Republicans remained heavily opposed to marriage equality.

2012-MAY: A Washington Post/ABC poll found that opposition to SSM was 39%. As the Washington Post said: "Gay marriage opposition hits new low" at less than 40% for the first time in a national poll.

2012-JUN-06:CNN/ORC released the findings of a national poll showing that 54% of American adults believe that same-sex marriage (SSM) should be legalized while only 42% are opposed! That is a margin of 12 percentage points, the largest that we have ever seen in a national poll.

2012-JUL-25 to AUG-05: A Washington Post / Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed that the CNN/ORC poll was not a fluke. The former found that 53% of American adults supported same-sex marriage; 42% were opposed. This found a margin of 11 percentage points in favor of SSM! The size of the poll -- involving 3,130 persons -- was unusually large, making a margin of error of just ±1.75 percentage points! This is a very reliable result!

Trends in support and opposition to same-sex marriage have been similar to the earlier trends for interracial marriage back in the late 20th century. For decades, there was a gradual increase in support by about 1 percentage point a year and a gradual decrease in opposition by the same amount. However, for SSM, there seems to have been a speedup in the process during the early 2010's, of about 2.3 percentage points per year. We speculate that this is due, in part, to:

Millions of lesbians, gays and bisexuals who have risked harassment, physical attacks, raw hatred, and animus by coming out of "the closet" to friends and family. Surveys have shown that when an individual finds that a friend or family member is non-heterosexual, many radically change their attitude towards sexual minorities in a positive direction.

overtured Prop. 8 -- the public initiative that temporarily prevented SSMs in California

Raising the public awareness of the lack of equality for LGBT persons, and the consequences of discrimination and harassment might have resulted in more adults discussing and studying the treatment of LGBTs. This, in turn, may have caused a change in public opinion of SSM.